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Surrey homecoming for Erica Sigurdson on Snowed In Comedy Tour, at venue near former school

The Queen Elizabeth Secondary grad has won awards during her 2 decades of performing across Canada
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Surrey-raised comedian Erica Sigurdson returns to the city on this year’s Snowed In Comedy Tour, which stops at Surrey Arts Centre on Thursday, Jan. 26. (Submitted photo)

Erica Sigurdson has performed in dozens of theatres in Canada during her 20 years in comedy, but never one in her hometown of Surrey.

This winter she’s among the four comedians featured on the Snowed In Comedy Tour along with Dan Quinn, Pete Zedlacher, Paul Myrehaug.

“It’s weird,” Sigurdson said, “because I’ve played almost all of the theatres we’re doing on this tour, except in my hometown. I’ve never played Surrey Arts Centre, so it’s kind nice to be able to do that. Hopefully my friends show up.”

The show date is Thursday, Jan. 26 at Bear Creek Park’s Main Stage, located just a few blocks south of Queen Elizabeth Secondary, where Sigurdson went to school.

Years earlier, at age seven, she wrote her first joke and performed it for her parents: What can a person in a wheelchair never be? A stand-up comic.

“My parents kind of looked at me, slightly horrified by my very politically incorrect joke, but they were also kind of impressed that I clearly got the anatomy of writing a joke at a young age,” Sigurdson says in Beka Shane Denter’s 2022 book, “Bloom Where You Are Planted: 50 Conversations With Inspiring British Columbians” (Heritage House).

In conversation on the phone from Terrace, Sigurdson sounds happy to be touring the country doing what she loves, with people she actually likes to hang around with.

Now in its 14th year, Snowed In has become “Canada’s biggest stand-up comedy tour,” as suggested on the website snowedincomedytour.com. This year Surrey is among 70 cities on the tour. From now until April, Sigurdson will perform all dates except for the Ontario leg.

“It’s a long tour,” Sigurdson confirmed. “Over the years, different people have tagged along, and I did some dates last year and also in 2020, which got shutdown because of COVID, and a few shows in 2019. This year is the most shows I’ll do on the tour. We’ve had some sold-out shows so far in B.C., which is great.

“We haven’t been snowed in,” she added with a laugh, when asked. “Knock on wood, we’ve been really lucky so far. Our longest drive was Kamloops to Smithers on Sunday, and we had great sunny weather and it’s been really nice up here. For early January, it’s been nice, for sure.”

The four comedians travel the country in a pair of SUVs, reported Sigurdson, who doesn’t ski or snowboard but everyone else has gear for the hills, requiring additional cargo space.

Now living in Vancouver’s West End with her husband, Sigurdson is a two-time Leo Award winner for comedy writing, an in-demand standup comedian and performer/emcee for conferences and events. She’s also an advocate for Type 1 diabetes awareness, having lived with the disease since age 10.

“There’s so much great technology now, and I started looping about four years ago now,” Sigurdson said. “It’s a little machine that allows my glucose monitor and pump to speak to each other, so it adjusts my insulin levels every five minutes. The biggest difference it’s made is that during my time sleeping, having my blood sugar in range, you know, it makes such a huge difference, waking up and having kinda perfect blood-sugar. And it’s great for travelling too, because when you’re alone in a hotel room it’s nice to know that this little robot has your back.”

On tour this winter, the Snowed In show format has Zedlacher emceeing, Quinn on stage second, Sigurdson third and Myrehaug closing the night. The shows continue until an early-April date in Halifax, to which Sigurdson will return for a festival show late that month.

“I’ve gotten to see so much of Canada over the years, and I’ve really gotten to know it,” she said. “This tour, I’ve started taking pictures of all the great restaurants we go to, and post those on Instagram. It’s fun to share those for people who might want to know about good places to eat while travelling.

“We were talking last night about how great it is to know each other for so long, for something like 20 years, and actually enjoy being on the road together,” Sigurdson continued. “It’s good when you actually get along with the people because 47 cities is a lot – that’s how many dates I’m doing this time. We just hang out, and it’s something we all dreamed about doing when we first started this – travel around, do comedy and hang out with people that you really get along with. It’s a perfect situation.”

Tickets for the Snowed In show in Surrey are sold on tickets.surrey.ca, or call the box office, 604-501-5566.



Tom Zillich

About the Author: Tom Zillich

I cover entertainment, sports and news stories for the Surrey Now-Leader, where I've worked for more than half of my 30-plus years in the newspaper business.
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